


a soft epilogue

by 26stars



Series: Fall Prompts 2020 [22]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Baby Fic, F/F, Fluff, Future Fic, family fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:27:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27800740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/26stars/pseuds/26stars
Summary: Bedtime is down to a routine by now, but that doesn't mean that May and Bobbi aren't exhausted by the end of it. Still, their nightly stories are May's favorite thing.For the fall prompt 'tales'
Relationships: Melinda May/Bobbi Morse, Robin Hinton & Bobbi Morse, Robin Hinton & Melinda May
Series: Fall Prompts 2020 [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1931209
Comments: 12
Kudos: 13
Collections: Women of the MCU





	a soft epilogue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Oparu (USSJellyfish)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/USSJellyfish/gifts).



> Thanks USSJellyfish for putting babyfic in my head this week. This one's for you ;)

May finished rubbing lotion into Ava’s already-soft skin, then started to work the eight-month-old’s feet into her fleece pajamas. The little one was already becoming more active, though she had yet to break into what some books described as an “early independence crusade”, so wrangling her into clothes was not the challenge May had heard it might turn into before too long. At this hour of the night, Ava was already getting plenty sleepy anyway, so it wasn’t hard to finish dressing her for the night, run the bath towel over her damp hair one more time, and then pick her up and carry her to the door while hanging the towel on its hook to dry for the night. May passed an empty bathroom (though the tub was still full of bath toys) as she headed down the hall, following the sound of voices to the next bedroom.

Her wife and daughter were both cross-legged on Robin’s little bed, and Bobbi was in the process of braiding Robin’s wet hair into two French braids. They were both singing “I’m Yours” as Bobbi worked, and May smiled as she crossed the room to deliver Ava into the nest made by Bobbi’s long legs. She didn’t interrupt the song, just thumbed a bead of water off Robin’s temple as she headed back out of the room and down to the kitchen to prepare Ava’s last nighttime bottle.

By the time she made it back to Robin’s room with the warm bottle in hand, the braids were finished and Robin was in the process of picking out her book for the night while Bobbi held Ava nestled against her chest, now sitting propped against the pillows at the head of the bed. She smiled as May came in and passed the baby carefully back to her, and May had just assumed her place filling the other side of the little mattress when Robin came back to the bed with her book and squirmed in between them.

“Didn’t you read that one last night?” May observed as she positioned Ava in her arms and offered her the bottle.

“I bet you can read this whole thing by yourself now,” Bobbi said instead of agreeing, opening the book and propping it on Robin’s lap open to the first page. “Let’s see: _In an old house in Paris that was covered with…_ ”

“Vines,” Robin supplied, her gaze fixed on the page.

“ _Lived twelve little girls in two straight…”_

“Lines.”

They went on like that through the whole story, and May listened contentedly as Robin helped recite a book that she was still a year or so from reading by herself. Ava drank her whole bottle without pause, and May allowed herself to think that she was listening to the story too, content to hear and see her whole family all in one place.

When the book was done and Ava had let out a decent burp, May turned her around for Robin to see face-to-face.

“All right. A kiss for the baby bird!” she prompted, and Robin turned to happily plant a kiss on her sister’s forehead. Bobbi leaned over her to nuzzle Ava’s belly too, and the baby cooed and grabbed a fistful of her hair before May could stop her.

“Night-night, baby,” Bobbi smiled as May pried her hair free, quickly kissing Ava’s cheek before May stood up.

“I’ll be back for your other story in just a minute,” she promised Robin, heading for the door.

Ava went down for the night without a fuss—this nighttime routine was finally working for both of them—and May let out a slow breath as she headed back to Robin’s room with empty arms. Robin was now under her covers with Bobbi sitting on the floor beside the bed, where May joined her even though her joints protested the position.

“Okay, Bigbird,” Bobbi said once May was seated. “Which story do you want to hear tonight?”

“The one about Aunt Jemma going to space in a rock,” Robin said immediately, holding her covers up to her chin.

May cringed internally. “That one’s a little scary. Are you sure you want to hear that one right before bed?”

“All of our stories are scary,” Bobbi reminded her quietly. “But they all have happy endings, otherwise, we wouldn’t be here now.”

So May sat back and listened while Bobbi told a G-rated version of the story, ending it at the part where Fitz pulled Jemma to safety through a closing portal that Daisy was holding open—May hadn’t been there for the event, so it was just as much a story for her. Bobbi didn’t mention the monster that made its way back to their world later, but Robin was not so sleepy to not ask follow-up questions tonight.

“What happened to Aunt Jemma’s friend?” she asked at the end of the story, her brown eyes concerned.

Bobbi glanced at May, who shrugged sadly. “He didn’t get to come back that time.”

“Is he still there?” Robin looked on the verge of tears, and May put a gentle hand on her chest.

“He’s in a better place now.”

When she was younger, long before she was actually a parent, May had promised herself that she would never lie to her children when she didn’t have to. But now, moments like this were constantly showing her that telling the truth was _hard_. It wasn’t just that kids deserved to be shielded from the darker parts of reality until they had more coping skills for it, but it also crushed May every time she saw her daughter’s heart break.

“It’s a little sad, isn’t it?” Bobbi said gently, stroking Robin’s cheek. She was always the better of the two of them at helping Robin verbalize her emotions.

Robin nodded, her lip sticking out, and May leaned a little closer to Robin.

“Do you want to tell us a story tonight?” she asked, hoping a change of subject would help.

After a thoughtful moment, Robin nodded, rolling over and resting her cheek on her pillow, facing May and Bobbi.

“There’s a spaceship somewhere far away from here, and on it, all the people are purple…”

It took a little bit, but Robin gradually talked herself to sleep, and as her story eventually trailed off a few minutes later, Bobbi got up on her knees to lean over and hug her neck and kiss her goodnight.

“I love you, Bigbird,” she whispered. “Thanks for the story.”

May did the same, hugging their little girl tight as Bobbi flipped off the light. “Love you, sweetheart. See you in the morning.”

Bobbi had to help her a little to get off the floor, but they got out to the hall without Robin calling after them, closing the door quietly. By unspoken signal, they immediately headed back to the living room, sinking into the couch pressed against each other and letting out tired sighs as Bobbi’s arms wrapped around her.

Bedtime was a special time every night, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t also a little exhausting.

“That was a new story,” Bobbi eventually said around a yawn, and May nodded against her shoulder.

Robin told stories like that sometimes, whenever she felt like it. The drawings of her little years hadn’t stopped yet, but she didn’t make them as much as she used to. The stories she told sometimes sounded like something she had seen, glimpsed in another timeline, or possibly just a future that hadn’t arrived yet. May tried to keep each one filed away, just in case it mattered someday, but in the back of her mind, she knew it made no difference. A future was coming, one way or another, and she though she couldn’t stop it, she could do her best to make it as happy as possible for the people around her now.

“How long do you think it will be before she starts telling more stories than we tell her?” she mused, nestling into Bobbi’s arms.

“I don’t know…how long until you come out of retirement and we make a few new memories to tell her about?”

May huffed out a breath. “I wouldn’t do that just for the stories.”

“No, we do it for the money,” Bobbi teased. “Anyway, it’s good to know one of us is always safe enough.”

“You saw my old knees barely handle the floor,” May grumbled, turning in Bobbi’s embrace to nestle further into her space. “I won’t be any match for my old opponents anytime soon.”

“I’ll keep us safe in the meantime,” Bobbi said, kissing the top of May’s head. “And I’ll keep bringing home stories just for you.”

“Speaking of, you still haven’t told me the latest scuttlebutt from the helicarrier,” May reminded her, glancing up at her wife. “How is Mack doing? And what ended up happening with that Brazilian informant?”

May nearly fell asleep before Bobbi got to the end of the story, but she knew it was nothing to be ashamed of. After everything they’d been through, it meant so much to have a house, a family, and a person who felt safe enough to fall asleep with.

It was a future she never could have dreamed of penning for herself, and it was a story May was so grateful to call _theirs_.


End file.
